4. November 2009 by student.

When seen on the news this floored me.  “The H1N1 vacine is availibale but not to all.”  Is this a monopoly to who lives and who dies?  Who has the right to make this decision?  It seems the the world is coming to the end and an individual choses who lives and who dies.  Oh, but wait, it gets better, jail inmates have recieved it before college students have.  This makes totoal sense to me.  NOT!  Oh and again, I was required to get shots before coming to college, but they don’t even offer the swine flu shot.  Do not worry, it is just a epidemic swarming the area, you don’t really need the shot.  Also, another mind blowing thing, us college kids come in more contact with one another than any other group of people on the planet.  If one of us gets sick, we all usually go down.  Sure I understand this decision of not being to offer it to all, there is not enough for the genral public so we will give it to the military and the people that need it most.  Wait, the military?  Beleive me, I have the most respect for them and believe they do derserve things first, but arnt they in areas that the general public does not come in contact with?  Does the swine flu even exist overseas?  Just confusing if you ask me.  This problem is definatly a social conflict of power.  Someone decided who was getting the treatment.  Who can decide that?  Does not seem to democratic to me.  AND, again to in the headline “YOUNG ADULTS ARE AMONG THOSE AT THE GREATEST RISK TO BE INFECTED.”  a.k.a. college kids, but supplies are limited. 

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4. November 2009 by student.

So we are in school searching for our dream career.  We have selected the major we know we want, we get a job in that field while we are in college, and now we get to the interesting part.  Our life in education is restricting us from moving forward with our careers that we go to college to be successful in.  For example, not being able to work on a cetain day and make money due to the fact we have to attend a basic college class that is required, example enviromental biology.  How am I going to use that in my major?  I am not interesting in magnolia trees, and learning about these trees in keep me from advancing in career.  Now sure, if you have a part time job working to make through to get through college it is fine going to these classes.  This argument I feel mainly applies to seniors and juniors who have done a possible internship and have recieve a full time job.  I know for a fact with my job if I was availiable more, I could easily be furthering myself in my career if i didnt have to leave early for class and do the one thing that school tries to teach us, work hard.  I again think that we the people need to step back and take a look at our education system.  Just because it has been done this way since, who knows how long, times have changed, technology has changed but we still stick to the same guns we have had since the 50’s.  On the other hand, sure it is easy to understand that going through the regular college process makes sense.  For 70 percent of students sure, BUT, I ask you to look at who the most successful college students are.  Not the ones changing majors, and going through all the classes.  But the one’s who have fast tracked themselves and have been working in their selected industry for years.  This is why some of us chose to go to school at FGCU, due to its demographic.  This argument reflects and argues thing like our norms, and regular ideas about education as well as is not being able to work the rational decision?  Think about this and let me know.

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4. November 2009 by student.

Drinking and driving is a serious and dangerous issue. Driving while either intoxicated or drunk is dangerous and drivers with high blood alcohol content or concentration (BAC) are at greatly increased risk of car accidents, highway injuries and vehicular deaths.   According to alcoholalert.com this year so far nearly 11,000 people have been this year already due to drinking and driving.  Single injury and death caused by drunk driving is very preventable. Although the proportion of crashes that are alcohol-related has dropped dramatically in recent decades, there are still far too many such preventable accidents. Unfortunately, in spite of great progress, alcohol-impaired driving remains a serious national problem that tragically affects many victims annually.  There are many different ways to go about drinking and driving.  First off, you should always have a sober person with you or even if you did not go with someone, I am sure you could either get a ride or have someone come pick you up.  Please, next time you are out and  you have a drink please think about all the lives you are putting in danger while driving home. 

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4. November 2009 by student.

Most people in today’s society have had a pet sometime in their life; many even have had a cat or a dog.  We all know that there are many ways to adopt a new pet to join your family.  Two major ways of adopting is first from the human society, and another is adopting from a pet store.  Most of us don’t think about where we should adopt from we just know the type of pet we would like to own, maybe doing some research to see if that type of pet would fit into your life and your schedule, and then going out and looking for that specific animal. 

My family adopted my dog about 8 years ago from the human society when we lived in South Dakota.  She’s mix bread between a beagle and a golden retriever.  We didn’t have a specific breed of dog that we were looking for we just wanted her to be house trained, and kid friendly.  She has been a great addition to our family; everyone that has watched her for us when we go out of town has asked where we got her and mentioned that she is so sweet.  This is a firsthand experience adopting from a local humane society, and having great results.

While I was researching this topic I was shocked by some of the facts that I found for example 2000 dogs and 3500 cats are born every hour in the United States according to the Humane Society Website.  Another sad fact is that over 10 million pets are euthanized each year.  There are too many pets in our Humane Society and not enough families willing to adopt them.  One of the main reasons for this is people want a specific breed and they think that they need to special order or gets them from a pet store.  This just isn’t true, if you go to the Humane Society website you can search for that specific breed and they will let you know what humane society have that pure breed.  If more people went about adoption this way then maybe some of the puppy mills would shut down.  Puppy Mills are farms that breed different pure breeds and then sell them to pet stores.  While these puppies are at the mills they are kept in horrible environments, barely fed, and all in all treated very poorly.  Many of the animals at these mills die while being there, and never make it into the home of a loving family. 

I believe that awareness needs to be brought to this subject.  Many people don’t know that you can adopt pure bred animals from the Humane Society.  Another misconception is that the animals there are abused, or have other psychological problems which can cause them to be aggressive.  I think that the Humane Society does a very good job of informing the customers about the specific pet.  Every animal has an information card that lets you know if it is house trained, and other major facts that you would want to know.  This will help people to make better decision on pet adoption.          

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4. November 2009 by student.

What is welfare? Welfare is a set of connected programs including job training, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), WIC checks,  Social Security, and Medicare.  It is aimed towards assisting lower class and poorer citizens.  Welfare was instituted in the 1930’s, and has grown exponentially since then.   In 2006, welfare cost approximately 354.5 billion dollars, which is 2.7% of total GDP.

Some people claim that the welfare system is being abused. The myth that welfare goes to black, unwed teenage mothers that stay on for years at a timeis false.  In 2007, a study was done that proved that the majority of people on welfare are non-black adults that stay on for only about 2 years before going off of it.    Also, many older people are on Medicare and Medicaid.

When the Bush administration was in office, they tried reforming welfare. Their main objective was to give the welfare recipients more hours at work, and better jobs.  They increased it from 30 to 40 hours per week, and increased the number of welfare recipients that held jobs from 60% to 70%.

Personally, I think that welfare should be a little more restrictive. People applying should have to undergo routine drug testing, so that they will not use the money on drugs. Also, the government should keep a closer eye on how the recipients are spending the money.

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4. November 2009 by student.

Technology has improved our lives in countless ways. We can communicate faster, easier, and more efficiently. Text messaging is a perfect example of this. Instead of picking up the phone to call someone, one can send a simple text without the hassle of an entire conversation. Unfortunately, this convenience has turned into a very real danger, as texting while driving causes more and more accidents every day. Statistics are showing that the price of taking your eyes from the road to your phone might be someone’s life.

In 2007, distractions such as using a cell phone or text messaging contributed to nearly 1,000 crashes involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers.  This is a very scary thought. Researchers believe that texting causes more accidents than making a phone call and using an mp3 player because it involves taking your eyes off the road and moving your fingers. In a research study done using a simulated driving course, the drivers who were texting were observed to slow down significantly and to swerve more than a foot outside their designated lane. Teens themselves have admitted that texting is, in fact, their number one driving distraction. Every year, 21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage. Texting and driving seems like an unnecessary risk that could potentially end your, or someone else’s, life.

Next time you’re out on the road, think about this: almost 50% of all drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 are texting while driving. This should be reason enough for us not to text. Chances are someone next to you is texting, so we should be alert to their driving for our own safety. Texting is a distraction that could prove deadly. More information about its dangers needs to be made known to teens in order to break this fatal trend.

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